Nothing was what it seemed at Alexander Wang’s Fall 2012 show. The materials he used were the most customized and luxe he has ever employed.
The first look out at Proenza Schouler couldn’t have been more different from anything Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandezpresented last season.
In many ways it was a classic Marc Jacobs kind of evening. He served a collection with a big point of view, a bombastic production, a little show tunes sensibility sprinkling, maniacal styling and a hodgepodge of themes and ideas that never get so tangled up that you can’t discern one element from the other.
Exactly one year ago Kate and Laura Mulleavy sent out their first ready-to-wear collection that had no ties to their home state of California. Up until their “Days of Heaven”/American Great Plains-inspired round-up last fall, one of the diehard Rodarte tenets had always been California or bust.
Chadwick Bell calls his Fall 2012 woman his Midnight Rose.
There is a caveat. The similarities between this Fall/Winter 2012 lineup and Balenciaga’s own celebrated F/W 07 outing are rather severe. Altuzarra’s dip into LBD territory also recalls Nicolas Ghesquiere’s little black dress opening numbers for F/W 08.
Joseph Altuzarra is just hot off his CFDA/VFF Award win a couple of months ago and just in case there was a soul out there that doubted the young French designer’s cred, this latest collection should be proof enough that it certainly was no fluke.
Every fall, the Rag & Bone MO is patchwork layering. This latest from David Neville and Marcus Wainwright is no different on that stance, but the zeal and kinetic energy of their clothes appeared somewhat stifled by a drab color scheme.
Jason Wu waits for Fall to translate his almost fairy tale-like wonderment with the opulence of foreign lands. Last Fall he exorcised Robert Polidori’s ‘Parcours Museologique Revisite’ – a three volume set on the 25 year restoration of Versailles – into an utterly successful collection that cemented Wu’s place as a stalwart in the New York fashion mainstream (If his Obama associations hadn’t done so already).
The attempt here seems to be no-fuss Parisienne elegance, but injected with a touch of modernity that Galliano couldn’t seem to wrangle for himself.
Miuccia Prada held court and staged a coup in Milan with her latest for menswear.
Burberry Prorsum makes trenches. Yes, we got it, and Christopher Bailey knows we got it too. Here he continues to tout his refocus on the house parka, and more expressively still, on the bomber.
Expect the unexpected is the constant protocol du jour on show or press day at Balenciaga. The guessing game is only a halfway fruitless endeavor with a Nicolas Ghesquiere collection.
For Pre-Fall, Philo hasn’t completely abandoned the rounded cuts, nor the baggy fits, and as evidenced by a tapered color-blocked trouser, champagne in the front, matte white on the back, she obviously isn’t ready to forsake what’s been making her loyal following covetous and hungry for the hot-again brand since taking over the helm in 2010.
For Pre-Fall, Alexander Wang went for something a bit less gimmick-laden than his Spring BMX biker outing with a line-up deeply locked in what can be termed a ‘Dark Primness’.
First look at the Proenza Schouler Spring Summer 2012 Campaign
It was an eventful year for the fashion world. What didn’t happen? There was the John Galliano scandal and all the succession speculation that ensued, Creative Directors were thrown around from house to house like rag dolls, Marc Jacobs’ Spring collection was stolen in London en route from Paris, the Alexander McQueen exhibit broke records at the Met, Sarah Burton designed Catherine Middleton’s wedding dress, Lady Gaga – the list goes on and on.
Whether it was an intentional kind of inspiration or not, ‘Manhattan’ proved to be the perfect vehicle for the cinephile designer to tackle a pre-fall vibe.
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are hot off back-to-back triumphs on the runway for Proenza Schouler and they’re proving, season to season, to be masters of the fashion about-face.
How does that fashion maxim go again? Three is a trend? In that case let’s just go and induct houndstooth as the earlyl front-runner for hot trend of the pre-fall season.
Zac Posen has returned to New York with his ears attuned to the needs of his client base.
Probably the biggest undertaking in the entire 119-year history of American Vogue comes to its completion today.
Frederique Constant, one of the world’s premiere watch makers and artisans is finally opening up shop stateside. With its own boutique at William Barthman Jewelers in the heart of New York City’s financial district.
How to begin to discuss one of Karl Lagerfeld‘s collections for Chanel? With almost 80 looks that walked down the runway in Paris’ Grand Palais space for Chanel‘s pre-fall foray, Uncle Karl doesn’t make it easy.
Jason Wu is back to his aristocratic ways with his Pre-Fall 2012 collection. But these weren’t the veiled, Klimtian princesses from last fall’s much venerated Robert Polidori/Versailles line-up.